A quick list of the name puns & origins. Didn't figure out all of them though, so do comment if you have an idea where the names come from. The list is probably in order of chapter appearance (by which I mean: this is by memory, so some recurring characters might be grouped in the wrong episode).

Spoiler: Episode 1

ボクト・ツアーニ / Bokuto Tsuāni: Comes from the phrase boku to tsua ni (僕とツアーに), ‘on a tour with me’.ミタマル / Mitamaru: Comes from mitama (御霊), ‘sacred spirit’ + the suffix maru (丸), often given to young (male) children.ミーマ・ワルヒト / Mīma Waruhito: Comes from mimawaru hito (見回る人), ‘patrolling person’. Waruhito also comes from warubito (悪人), ‘bad person’.ポットディーノ・ニカワス / Potdīno Nikawas: comes from pottode (ぽっと出), ‘suddenly from the sticks/out of nowhere’ and niwaka (にわか), ‘suddenly’. (Source for explanation name)レイファ・パドマ・クライン / Reifa Padma Kurain: Rei comes from rei, 'spirit' (Source).Reifa might come from an alternate reading of the reibana (霊花), itself an alternate name for the higanbana (彼岸花), also known as the Lycoris radiata, a flower said to be growing in Buddhist Hell. (hana/bana is read hua/fa in Chinese). Padma means ‘lotus’ in Sanskrit (Source). バアヤ / Bāya: Not a name, but a title meaning ‘granny’.ジーイン寺院 / Jī’in Temple: Comes from ji’in (寺院), ‘temple’. It’s a repeating name ( Jī’in ji’in).

Spoiler: Episode 2

ナユタ・サードマディ / Nayuta Sādmadi: Nayuta (那由他) comes from a Sanskrit word meaning ‘myriad’ and also denotes a number in cultures where they use Chinese characters. That number can be 10^60 or 10^72, depending on the person asked. Nayuta is the name of someone Yamazaki knew from university. It was originally a placeholder name, but Eshiro liked it so much he didn't allow Yamazaki to change it. Sadmadi comes the Japanese saying: hotoke no kao mo sando made ('even the Buddha will get angry if you brush his face thrice') (Source). Also from the Sanskrit Samadhi, which refers to a state of meditative consciousness菜々野美々 / Nanano Mimi: If you flip the kanji na (菜) and no (野) around, you get yasai (野菜), ‘vegetable’. Mimi (耳) also means ears. (Source)菜々野輝々 / Nanano Kiki: probably named after her sister. ?? Kikimimi (聞き耳) means ‘ears poised for listening’.志乃山金成 / Shinoyama Kanenari: Following the customs in Japanese TV production crew lingo, you need to flip the names around. Shinoyama becomes yamashino (山師の). Kanenari (金成) turns into narikin (成金). Together, yamashi no narikin (山師の成金) means ‘a swindling/cheating nouveau riche’. (Source)Mr. メンヨー / Mr. Menyo: Menyō (面妖) means ‘strange’, ‘suspicious’.伏木直人 / Fushigi Naohito: From fushigi na hito (不思議な人), ‘strange person’.Trompe Theater: From Trompe-l'œil.ニドミテレビ / Nidomi TV: from nidomi (二度見), ‘look twice’.

大津部雫 / Ōtsubu Shizuku: Ōtsubu (大粒) means 'a large [unit of something small]', for example, 'a large tear'. Shizuku (雫) means 'a drop'.八久留間来人 / Haguruma Raito: Haguruma (歯車) means 'gear'. The name 'Raito' comes from the Wright Brothers.米倉静次 / Yonekura Seiji: The family name comes from nekura (根暗), 'gloomy', 'dark'. ?? Seiji ?? From the fact 'politics' (政治) made him a scapegoat??十文字一治 / Jūmonji Kazuharu: Jūmonji (十文字) literally means 'the character for ten (十)', or simply said: 'cross'. The kazu (一) in his given name means 'one', while the character for haru (治) means 'heal'.八久留間ひかり / Haguruma Hikari: From her brother's name: Raito -> Light, which is hikari (光) in Japanese).

"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear

Last edited by Ash on Tue Apr 18, 2017 7:19 am, edited 12 times in total.

Ah, good one. I had a suspicion it would have something to do with dragons.

"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear

"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear

I added the names for the characters of the Special Episode in the first post.

"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear

Oh, as I did this mostly from my head, it's fairly likely I'll have forgotten some names (place names / non-character names) that have a pun/special name origin. If you noticed I missed one, don't hesitate to mention them!

"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear

Ah, I see I forgot to explain the suffix -maru there (happens when you make such lists in random order). A note of mine though: the suffix -maru has no special affectionate undertones (it is definitely not something like the -chan honorific). It is simply a commonly used suffix for younger (male) children and names of ships, similar to Odoroki's -suke.

And super-trivia time because this is a topic that interests me: The most common theory is that -maru is a variation of the older -maro suffix, which has the meaning of 'I' (1st person sing), but the base meaning is 'excrement'; they use to believe that by calling their children 'shit', evil spirits would stay away from the children because they obviously thought that was icky and stuff. In ancient~pre-modern Japan, people usually got different names depending on the stage of life you were in, so they weren't being called shit all their (short) lives.

"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear

Sure. Sourcing would be very appreciated, also for the other people who contributed to the list.

"One dumbbell, Watson! Consider an athlete with one dumbbell! Picture to yourself the unilateral development, the imminent danger of a spinal curvature. Shocking, Watson, shocking!" - The Valley of Fear

Maybe if his first name was Percy but Pierce sounds totally different.

I could argue its "Pierce Nichody" as in "Pierce the body" as a hint to his original profession.

I don't really hear the "the" part when I read out his name, though. I can't really think of any other possible puns as of now, though.

If you need a defense attorney, come talk to me! I just...can't take any cases that are in real life...it has to be on Miiverse. But I'm a justice-seeking warrior who wins every time, like Mr. Fine over there! Well, as long as you're not guilty. In Justice We Trust!

To be honest, I don't get how anyone figured out the pun. I can definitely hear the "-nickety" part and maybe the "s" before it but I don't hear the "per" part. "Pier", in Pierce, sounds nothing "per". The "i" makes a huge difference here. This means the way the name is pronounced is, "Pier-suh Nick-o-dee". However, the pun requires the "i" in Pierce to be taken out just so I can hear the pun. Someone explain this all to me.

If you need a defense attorney, come talk to me! I just...can't take any cases that are in real life...it has to be on Miiverse. But I'm a justice-seeking warrior who wins every time, like Mr. Fine over there! Well, as long as you're not guilty. In Justice We Trust!

To be honest, I don't get how anyone figured out the pun. I can definitely hear the "-nickety" part and maybe the "s" before it but I don't hear the "per" part. "Pier", in Pierce, sounds nothing "per". The "i" makes a huge difference here. This means the way the name is pronounced is, "Pier-suh Nick-o-dee". However, the pun requires the "i" in Pierce to be taken out just so I can hear the pun. Someone explain this all to me.

This is basically my issue.

Also for me the word is "Pernickety" without any "s" sound before the "Nickety"

I'd also still argue that "Percy" would work better than "Pierce" because as mentioned the "i" makes a huge difference.

Made by Chesu+Zombee

You thought you could be safe in your courts, with your laws and attorneys to protect you. In this world only I am law, my word is fact, my power is absolute.

I didn't get Pierce's pun either at first. Or even all the times I spoke it aloud with different pronunciations, trying to see if something fit. It's entirely possible for people to not get it unless told (like me).

To be honest, I don't get how anyone figured out the pun. I can definitely hear the "-nickety" part and maybe the "s" before it but I don't hear the "per" part. "Pier", in Pierce, sounds nothing "per". The "i" makes a huge difference here. This means the way the name is pronounced is, "Pier-suh Nick-o-dee". However, the pun requires the "i" in Pierce to be taken out just so I can hear the pun. Someone explain this all to me.

The name isn't supposed to be pronounced exactly like the word (see Taifu, Uendo and Geiru Toneido), it's more just a reference to it.

To be honest, I don't get how anyone figured out the pun. I can definitely hear the "-nickety" part and maybe the "s" before it but I don't hear the "per" part. "Pier", in Pierce, sounds nothing "per". The "i" makes a huge difference here. This means the way the name is pronounced is, "Pier-suh Nick-o-dee". However, the pun requires the "i" in Pierce to be taken out just so I can hear the pun. Someone explain this all to me.

The name isn't supposed to be pronounced exactly like the word (see Taifu, Uendo and Geiru Toneido), it's more just a reference to it.

There's a difference between a name being a reference to something and a name that doesn't remotely resemble the pun people claim it to be. Take Taifu, for example. Taifu does indeed resemble the intended pun, "Typhoon". That's because the lettering indicates as such. However, let's look at Pierce again. It can't be the "per" in "persnickety" because it doesn't remotely sound like it, not even a little. Le's look at the pronounciations of both names side-by-side and wih their intended pun. "Ty-fu", which is half of "Typhoon". "Pier-suh", which is somehow supposed to resemble "per" and "s" in "persnickety". If we're following your logic, "persnickety" should really be spelled "piersnickety" just for the pun to make even the slightest of sense. See what I mean now?

If you need a defense attorney, come talk to me! I just...can't take any cases that are in real life...it has to be on Miiverse. But I'm a justice-seeking warrior who wins every time, like Mr. Fine over there! Well, as long as you're not guilty. In Justice We Trust!

There's a difference between a name being a reference to something and a name that doesn't remotely resemble the pun people claim it to be. Take Taifu, for example. Taifu does indeed resemble the intended pun, "Typhoon". That's because the lettering indicates as such. However, let's look at Pierce again. It can't be the "per" in "persnickety" because it doesn't remotely sound like it, not even a little. Le's look at the pronounciations of both names side-by-side and wih their intended pun. "Ty-fu", which is half of "Typhoon". "Pier-suh", which is somehow supposed to resemble "per" and "s" in "persnickety". If we're following your logic, "persnickety" should really be spelled "piersnickety" just for the pun to make even the slightest of sense. See what I mean now?

It'd be easier to believe something like that if we didn't already HAVE name puns that don't sound like what they're supposed to be referencing.Like Damian Tenma being a reference to Demon (which is referenced by his Japanese name), Sasha Buckler (while a reference to the word "swashbuckler", the first name, like Pierce's, sounds nothing like the word it's supposed to be referencing, or Norma DePlume (which is a reference "nom de plume", again Norma sounds nothing like nom).

Although I do see what you mean in that his name pun is a lot less obvious than others we've seen.

There's a difference between a name being a reference to something and a name that doesn't remotely resemble the pun people claim it to be. Take Taifu, for example. Taifu does indeed resemble the intended pun, "Typhoon". That's because the lettering indicates as such. However, let's look at Pierce again. It can't be the "per" in "persnickety" because it doesn't remotely sound like it, not even a little. Le's look at the pronounciations of both names side-by-side and wih their intended pun. "Ty-fu", which is half of "Typhoon". "Pier-suh", which is somehow supposed to resemble "per" and "s" in "persnickety". If we're following your logic, "persnickety" should really be spelled "piersnickety" just for the pun to make even the slightest of sense. See what I mean now?

It'd be easier to believe something like that if we didn't already HAVE name puns that don't sound like what they're supposed to be referencing.Like Damian Tenma being a reference to Demon (which is referenced by his Japanese name), Sasha Buckler (while a reference to the word "swashbuckler", the first name, like Pierce's, sounds nothing like the word it's supposed to be referencing, or Norma DePlume (which is a reference "nom de plume", again Norma sounds nothing like nom).

Although I do see what you mean in that his name pun is a lot less obvious than others we've seen.

The difference between those examples and Pierce, however, is that Damian, Sasha, and Norma all get the general sound of the pun. Damian does sound like "demon" when said quickly and Sasha's name does the same thing. Now, you might be thinking Norma is the odd one out, that she's the same as Pierce. However, in all actuality, Norma achieves her pun in a way Pierce can't. An alternative way of pronouncing the name. You might also be thinking this can't happen however, it has before, in 2012-ish. Specifically, the "norm" has an alternative way to say it. Let's take a look back at Heavy Rain, specifically Norman Jayden. Now, does anyone remember how the character himself pronounced it? That's right, he said it like "Nahm-an"! And how do you say "nom" in "nom de plume"? You say it like "nahm". Therefore, you can still see the pun through pronunciation alone, which leaves you, Mr. Fenrir, with no case!

If you need a defense attorney, come talk to me! I just...can't take any cases that are in real life...it has to be on Miiverse. But I'm a justice-seeking warrior who wins every time, like Mr. Fine over there! Well, as long as you're not guilty. In Justice We Trust!

There's a difference between a name being a reference to something and a name that doesn't remotely resemble the pun people claim it to be. Take Taifu, for example. Taifu does indeed resemble the intended pun, "Typhoon". That's because the lettering indicates as such. However, let's look at Pierce again. It can't be the "per" in "persnickety" because it doesn't remotely sound like it, not even a little. Le's look at the pronounciations of both names side-by-side and wih their intended pun. "Ty-fu", which is half of "Typhoon". "Pier-suh", which is somehow supposed to resemble "per" and "s" in "persnickety". If we're following your logic, "persnickety" should really be spelled "piersnickety" just for the pun to make even the slightest of sense. See what I mean now?

It'd be easier to believe something like that if we didn't already HAVE name puns that don't sound like what they're supposed to be referencing.Like Damian Tenma being a reference to Demon (which is referenced by his Japanese name), Sasha Buckler (while a reference to the word "swashbuckler", the first name, like Pierce's, sounds nothing like the word it's supposed to be referencing, or Norma DePlume (which is a reference "nom de plume", again Norma sounds nothing like nom).

Although I do see what you mean in that his name pun is a lot less obvious than others we've seen.

I would also argue "Nichody" is not much like "nickety".

Made by Chesu+Zombee

You thought you could be safe in your courts, with your laws and attorneys to protect you. In this world only I am law, my word is fact, my power is absolute.

I don't know how you pronounce Pierce Nichody or persnickety, but those two are way closer than any of the other examples Fenrir gave.I mean, Pierce is as close to "pers" as Luke is to Look.

Luke sounds like you're extending the two "o" letters in "look", though. In fact, I hear some people daily say it like that. However, "Pier-suh" doesn't remotely sound like "per-suh". The "i" makes a huge difference in the pronounciation. Sure, Nichody resembles "nickety" somewhat, but if Pierce doesn't resemble the rest of it, then the pun would just be "nickety", which makes no sense either.

If you need a defense attorney, come talk to me! I just...can't take any cases that are in real life...it has to be on Miiverse. But I'm a justice-seeking warrior who wins every time, like Mr. Fine over there! Well, as long as you're not guilty. In Justice We Trust!

Not sure what you mean by extending the two "o" letters... Since "oo" is already extended.But anyway, this is really going in circles. Like I said, it's just a difference in how we pronounce things, I suppose.

But we can actually ask the guys behind the localization what the pun behind the name is. That's the only way to have clarification here

Not sure what you mean by extending the two "o" letters... Since "oo" is already extended.But anyway, this is really going in circles. Like I said, it's just a difference in how we pronounce things, I suppose.

But we can actually ask the guys behind the localization what the pun behind the name is. That's the only way to have clarification here

Pierce sounds like Peers or Piers: Piers Nick Odd Ey is how his name sounds in my head.

The sound they need for the pun to work is more akin to Perce hence I feel Percy would have been a better substitute.

Made by Chesu+Zombee

You thought you could be safe in your courts, with your laws and attorneys to protect you. In this world only I am law, my word is fact, my power is absolute.

Not sure what you mean by extending the two "o" letters... Since "oo" is already extended.But anyway, this is really going in circles. Like I said, it's just a difference in how we pronounce things, I suppose.

But we can actually ask the guys behind the localization what the pun behind the name is. That's the only way to have clarification here

About the "o" extension, let me put it this way. The way one pronounces look normally is "luh-kuh" or something close to it. However, Luke is pronounced "loo-kuh" or something similar again. Does that make more sense now? The "luh" is quicker than "loo".

If you need a defense attorney, come talk to me! I just...can't take any cases that are in real life...it has to be on Miiverse. But I'm a justice-seeking warrior who wins every time, like Mr. Fine over there! Well, as long as you're not guilty. In Justice We Trust!

The closest thing I can think of with the current spelling at least, although it's flimsy, is "Pierce Nick Oh Dee", which can be changed to "Pierce Nick Oh Dey", which I'll explain. "Oh dee", if you say it quickly enough, can sound similar to Edgey, which is Edgeworth's nickname. Ignoring the pronounciation spelling I used prior, it would now be something like "Pierce Nick Edgey". This would be a reference to when

Spoiler: DLC

Pierce does those X-rays on only Phoenix and Edgeworth. He's "piercing" "Nick" and "Edgey" with x-rays.

Like I said, it's flimsy but it's an idea I had in my head for a while.

If you need a defense attorney, come talk to me! I just...can't take any cases that are in real life...it has to be on Miiverse. But I'm a justice-seeking warrior who wins every time, like Mr. Fine over there! Well, as long as you're not guilty. In Justice We Trust!

The main point I'm trying to say is... the pun for the name is just lifted from the original word, but the pun doesn't HAVE to sound exactly the same as the original word, as it sounds close enough that at least SOMEONE will get the pun.

The main point I'm trying to say is... the pun for the name is just lifted from the original word, but the pun doesn't HAVE to sound exactly the same as the original word, as it sounds close enough that at least SOMEONE will get the pun.

lol I can't believe we're debating puns, it really is srs business...

It's all fun and games until someone talks to you like you are an idiot for not hearing a pun of a word that's not that obvious in the first place.

Made by Chesu+Zombee

You thought you could be safe in your courts, with your laws and attorneys to protect you. In this world only I am law, my word is fact, my power is absolute.

The main point I'm trying to say is... the pun for the name is just lifted from the original word, but the pun doesn't HAVE to sound exactly the same as the original word, as it sounds close enough that at least SOMEONE will get the pun.

lol I can't believe we're debating puns, it really is srs business...

It's all fun and games until someone talks to you like you are an idiot for not hearing a pun of a word that's not that obvious in the first place.

Ah..Well, I do apologise, if I came off harsh to you guys. It wasn't my intention.

The main point I'm trying to say is... the pun for the name is just lifted from the original word, but the pun doesn't HAVE to sound exactly the same as the original word, as it sounds close enough that at least SOMEONE will get the pun.

lol I can't believe we're debating puns, it really is srs business...

It's all fun and games until someone talks to you like you are an idiot for not hearing a pun of a word that's not that obvious in the first place.

Ah..Well, I do apologise, if I came off harsh to you guys. It wasn't my intention.

Wasn't you

Made by Chesu+Zombee

You thought you could be safe in your courts, with your laws and attorneys to protect you. In this world only I am law, my word is fact, my power is absolute.

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